Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College

PROJECT PURPOSE

Upgrade all network switches for bandwidth improvement. Current switches are coming up on end of life, with older software. The new switches will provide more monitoring and security features. As well as provide the students with a more secure connection. A generator will keep our data center online in the event of a power outage. This project will insure connectivity of the teachers as the present their content to students throughout the state. Remote students in rural communities will have greater access to our campus to support their learning objectives.

EVIDENCE

Past projects of this scale have been completed at other campuses in our system and information for the project has been provided by the Chief Information Officer that has overseen other projects of the scale.

POPULATION DESCRIPTION

Here, in the far northeastern area of the state, upwards of 20% of all residents live below poverty, bachelor?s degree attainment is only 12% (Native American) to 15% (all) compared to approximately 30% for the U.S., and Native American household income averages more than $20,000 less than the national average (Census). NEO serves as the educational gateway for our region. NEO is a comprehensive two-year, public, open door Native American-Serving Nontribal Institution, located Miami, Oklahoma. Our rural service area is home to ten tribal jurisdictions: Cherokee, Eastern Shawnee, Shawnee, Miami, Modoc, Ottawa, Peoria, Quapaw, Seneca-Cayuga, and Wyandotte. NEO is ranked among the top institutions in the nation for producing the greatest number of Native American graduates, with particular achievement in conferring Nursing, Allied Health and Agriculture degrees to Native American students (Diverse Issues in Higher Education). Currently, 33% of NEO?s Nursing majors are Native American, according to NEO?s Office of Institutional Research. Currently 63% of our students qualify for full PELL grants. While 90% qualify for assistance of any kind.

PERFORMANCE MEASURING

All older, existing network switches will be upgraded and for locations without adequate service switches will be added. Monitoring software is included in this upgrade. This will provide us with real time metrics to determine network improvement.

ONGOING INVESTMENT AMOUNT

$

ONGOING INVESTMENT DESCRIPTION

None

ONGOING INVESTMENT REQUIRED

Able to continue operation without additional funding from the State of Oklahoma